I wonder whether anyone else on here has had similar problems to myself with their charges from Sky?

I had been with Virgin Media for a number of years, on their all-singing/all-dancing VIP package. The cost of this had kept creeping up and up over the years and it was just short of £120 pm by the end. We felt that we were paying a lot of money for a lot of stuff we didn't need (eg: Sky movies, 100 mbps broadband ), and on a shopping trip to Manchester Trafford Centre we spoke to a Sky representative at a stand they had set up. The bottom line is that I agreed a package tailored to our needs of an initial £70 pm for 6 months and then £80 pm for the following 18 months. OK we didn't get movies, but my wife and I haven't watched one Sky movie all year, and the Sky broadband is just 15-20 mbps but that is perfectly acceptable for our purposes. However we were saving nearly £50 per month by switching, so great we thought.

Now a few weeks later, trying to get Sky to charge us £70 pm is proving a proper pain in the backside. Emails and telephone calls have gone back and forwards, and I have sent them scanned copies of the agreement that we came to at the beginning.

What a faff it is proving to be, why is nothing like this simple? One Sky agent on the telephone admitted that they have lots of examples of where these Sky reps on the street are offering deals that Sky accounts seem unwilling to honour. If it wasn't for the fact that I SHOULD be saving nearly £50 pm I'd be inclined to tell Sky to shove it and go back to Virgin.

Though I have been quite lucky with my SKY package I am reading more and more on the cmmunity forum about how dissatisfied people are getting.

If you have set up your online SKY account the check here http://helpforum.sky.com/ and start posting away on the threads. You are more likely to find help or people with the same issues.

The people at the top of the SKY tree seem to be getting very sneaky. Half the departments don't know what the other one is doing and they seem to be changing contracts and T&Cs all the time to find more ways to screw money out of us.

To find this link other than clicking on it here, you go to the SKY home page then hover over Help & Support then click on the SKY Community link the forums are in there. Took me awhile to find them.

I'm still going round in circles with Sky. Why is it so hard to get a Yes or No answer to a very simple question?

i.e. " I signed up for £70 per month for 6 months, followed by £80 per month for the next 18 months. Can you confirm that this is what you will be charging me?"

No disrespect about overseas call centres intended, but if I subsequently mention about cancelling and returning to Virgin (I've still got the connections and Tivo boxes etc.), and speaking to OFCOM, what's the betting someone UK based gets in touch?

I wonder whether anyone else on here has had similar problems to myself with their charges from Sky?

I had been with Virgin Media for a number of years, on their all-singing/all-dancing VIP package. The cost of this had kept creeping up and up over the years and it was just short of £120 pm by the end. We felt that we were paying a lot of money for a lot of stuff we didn't need (eg: Sky movies, 100 mbps broadband ), and on a shopping trip to Manchester Trafford Centre we spoke to a Sky representative at a stand they had set up. The bottom line is that I agreed a package tailored to our needs of an initial £70 pm for 6 months and then £80 pm for the following 18 months. OK we didn't get movies, but my wife and I haven't watched one Sky movie all year, and the Sky broadband is just 15-20 mbps but that is perfectly acceptable for our purposes. However we were saving nearly £50 per month by switching, so great we thought.

Now a few weeks later, trying to get Sky to charge us £70 pm is proving a proper pain in the backside. Emails and telephone calls have gone back and forwards, and I have sent them scanned copies of the agreement that we came to at the beginning.

What a faff it is proving to be, why is nothing like this simple? One Sky agent on the telephone admitted that they have lots of examples of where these Sky reps on the street are offering deals that Sky accounts seem unwilling to honour. If it wasn't for the fact that I SHOULD be saving nearly £50 pm I'd be inclined to tell Sky to shove it and go back to Virgin.

Moan over.

.

They should have sent an email confirming this shortly after the phone converation along with a letter. This is normal practice for Sky.

I wonder whether anyone else on here has had similar problems to myself with their charges from Sky?

I had been with Virgin Media for a number of years, on their all-singing/all-dancing VIP package. The cost of this had kept creeping up and up over the years and it was just short of £120 pm by the end. We felt that we were paying a lot of money for a lot of stuff we didn't need (eg: Sky movies, 100 mbps broadband ), and on a shopping trip to Manchester Trafford Centre we spoke to a Sky representative at a stand they had set up. The bottom line is that I agreed a package tailored to our needs of an initial £70 pm for 6 months and then £80 pm for the following 18 months. OK we didn't get movies, but my wife and I haven't watched one Sky movie all year, and the Sky broadband is just 15-20 mbps but that is perfectly acceptable for our purposes. However we were saving nearly £50 per month by switching, so great we thought.

Now a few weeks later, trying to get Sky to charge us £70 pm is proving a proper pain in the backside. Emails and telephone calls have gone back and forwards, and I have sent them scanned copies of the agreement that we came to at the beginning.

What a faff it is proving to be, why is nothing like this simple? One Sky agent on the telephone admitted that they have lots of examples of where these Sky reps on the street are offering deals that Sky accounts seem unwilling to honour. If it wasn't for the fact that I SHOULD be saving nearly £50 pm I'd be inclined to tell Sky to shove it and go back to Virgin.

Moan over.

.

They should have sent an email confirming this shortly after the phone converation along with a letter. This is normal practice for Sky.

I didn't sign up over the telephone. This was a Sky stand set-up in the Trafford Centre. My wife and I sat down and agreed everything face to face with the Sky representative, and I have a written agreement from that meeting. It's like anything, if you agree a price then that is what you should pay. I'm wary of such promotions, but I couldn't have made myself much clearer at that time i.e. " So let's be absolutely sure, I will be charged £70 per month for the total package?" "Yes sir".

I'm still going round in circles with Sky. Why is it so hard to get a Yes or No answer to a very simple question?

i.e. " I signed up for £70 per month for 6 months, followed by £80 per month for the next 18 months. Can you confirm that this is what you will be charging me?"

No disrespect about overseas call centres intended, but if I subsequently mention about cancelling and returning to Virgin (I've still got the connections and Tivo boxes etc.), and speaking to OFCOM, what's the betting someone UK based gets in touch?

.

It is no good expecting Sky to honour the agreement without you getting serious about their breach of contract. The off-shore centres excel at running you round in circles and not quite understanding.

We had a problem with Sky that wasn't worth the effort to get put right, but amazingly when you cancel your subscription you get calls from a UK based centre. They actually tried to say that I couldn't cancel because I had notified a week or so earlier than the specified days in the contract. When I promised to phone and email them every day up to and including the specified date, they decided to "make the extra effort to help me out". You couldn't make it up.

Best of luck, use the regulator and issue County Court proceedings if need be. Whatever happens please make a formal complaint to the regulator because if people don't, then nothing will ever change.